Batkid’s big day is almost here

Five-year-old Miles’ wish to be “Batkid” for a day will come true in San Francisco on Friday.

Five-year-old Miles already has experience fighting villains — he’s been facing off with acute lymphoblastic leukemia since he was 20 months old.

With his cancer in remission and his last bout of chemotherapy finished in June, his biggest wish was to continue living his life heroically. “He wanted to be Batman,” said Patricia Wilson, Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Bay Area executive director.

We can do that, Wilson thought, and she began putting the call out to volunteers to help turn San Francisco into Gotham City for a day for the boy from Tulelake (Siskiyou County).

It might as well have been a worldwide bat signal. Word of the foundation’s efforts spread fast on social media, and soon, what started as a small effort to make a 5-year-old boy a hero for the day turned into a citywide extravaganza with support and volunteers coming in from all over.

On Friday, by Make-A-Wish’s count, more than 11,000 volunteers will cheer on “Batkid” as he defeats the Riddler and the Penguin. The mayor will present Miles with a key to the city. Police Chief Greg Suhr will step in as Commissioner Gordon to alert Miles when his heroics are needed.

“I thought I could do it on a scale that a 5-year-old would appreciate,” said Wilson, whose foundation specializes in granting wishes to children with serious diseases. “But apparently, it’s on a scale now that the nation appreciates.

“I’ve never seen anything go viral like this, with the outpouring of support from across the world,” she said.

Suhr said so many people want to help out that officials have had to turn away some volunteers.

“My butcher at the grocery store was asking what he could do, the police commissioners was asking what they could do,” he said. ”Everywhere I go, the only thing people want to talk about is Batkid. I was just at a meeting with the attorney general, and Kamala Harris said, ‘Tell me about Batkid!’ ”

Wilson credited the spirit of tech-savvy San Francisco, whose residents took to the idea immediately and began spreading the word through social media.

“We have done other superhero wishes before at Make-A-Wish and no city has embraced it like this one,” she said. “There’s going to be a lot of love in San Francisco on Friday.”